A novel by Harry Adam Knight (a penname of Australian sf author John Brosnan, used for his schlockiest work), written in the 80's, some time prior to Jurassic Park. The novel's story is vastly different from the In Name Only Roger Corman film. In it, David Pascal in Cambridgeshire, England is trying to discover the causes of a recent rash of deaths. The local bigshot, Sir Darren Penward, who collects rare and exotic predators, insists it was a Siberian tiger that escaped from his private zoo. However the lone survivor of one of the attacks, a small boy, claims it was a dinosaur.

Pascal investigates further (mostly through wooing and ultimately sleeping with Penward's wife, Jane) and discovers Penward's scientists have cloned predatory dinosaurs for him to add to his collection. Inevitably the dinosaurs escape and wreak carnage throughout Cambridgeshire as the local police attempt to battle them.

Tropes used in this novel:

Action Survivor: David and his girlfriend Jenny are really put through the ringer.

Especially Egregious considering the simple fact that neither of those characters are in the novel, although a reader who never saw the movie would just assume its what the two unrelated main characters of the novel look like.

Death by Irony: Besides the dinosaurs, Sir Penward's estate houses all manner of nature's extant carnivores, many of which get loose when the dinosaurs go on the rampage. The animal that's ultimately responsible for doing Penward in? One of the steers he kept for feeding purposes gores him in the thigh, and it's lampshaded several times throughout the novel.

Death by Sex: In one of the few sequences that actually gets somewhat depicted in the film, Pat and Jeremy are mauled to death by a Deinonychus while getting it on in their car.

Diabolus Ex Machina: The Deinonychus that Pascal forgets about homes right in on Jenny's home and slaughters her family and gravely wounds both her and Pascal. What are the chances it would pick her house?

Prehistoric Monster: Despite being fairly progressive in dinosaur depictions, it is still very much guilty of this. All but one of the dinosaurs mercilessly hunt down humans and devour them long after their appetites should be sated. This is especially weird for creatures like Dilophosaurus and the plesiosaur, which would not be very well equipped to eat large, fast moving prey like human beings. However in the case of the larger carnivores like the Deinonychus and Tarbosaurus, this could be explained in that mammals would have been a common food source for them as babies and they were fed cattle at Penward's estate. Just as humans have an atavistic fear of dinosaurs, the dinosaurs would have an atavistic instinct to equate mammals with easy food.

Primal Fear: In addition to the obvious (the fear of large carnivores), this is discussed in the novel. Just the smell of the dinosaurs is enough to terrify people.

Shown Their Work: The author almost certainly did a lot of research for this and it shows. They even pointed out that plesiosaurs aren't dinosaurs!

Sequel Hook: two Tyrannosaurus hatch and no one knows where they are at. Considering it's been about 30 years, and the author died, it's unlikely to be followed up on.

Stock Dinosaurs: Subverted. Knight uses Tarbosaurus instead of a T. rex as the novel's main threat. Altispinax (now known as Becklespinax and just as obscure by that name) and Scolosaurus briefly turn up as well.

Nevertheless, some stock dinosaurs are featured. To wit:

Brachiosaurus is briefly featured

Deinonychus is the most featured dinosaur of all, and it's arguably great stock in all but name. Interestingly, this was before raptors were made stock dinosaurs

Dilophosaurus is featured. This is also before it was made stock, and as such, isn't depicted as frilled or poisonous.

Megalosaurus makes a few appearances

A plesiosaur (unknown exactly which kind) is a big threat as well.

Lastly, two baby Tyrannosaurus are hatched.

So, to sum it up, 2 great stock, 3 secondary stock, 1 rarely seen stock, and the rest are non-stock.

Penward himself Would Hurt a Child however, and plans to have the boy murdered. Fortunately he's distracted by more pressing matters before he can do so, as the dinos get loose, rendering the issue of the boy moot, and Penward forgets about him.

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